Amitabh Bachchan Speaks out Against India’s “Land of Rapes” Label

“It is very embarrassing when we visit abroad and people there say, ‘You are from India, the land of rapes’. I want that to go. I do not like it when people call us a third world country or developing country,” said veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan. The star made the comments during a press conference for his latest flick ‘Pink’.

India has long had a bad name as a country where people defecate in open or on the roadside. The latest addition to the infamous monikers is the “land of rapes”. With rape being the fourth most common crime against women in India, which is showing no sign of stopping, foreign media has gone so far as to labelling the entire country as ‘land of rapes’.

Mr. Bachchan, who is playing the role of a retired lawyer with bipolar disease who goes all out to fight for three young women who are in trouble after resisting a molestation attempt, stressed the need to work together to make the country a developed one.

The actor of Bollywood classics, such as Sholay and Deewar, also pointed out that rape is not a problem for a specific metropolitan city or an area; it is not about whether one place is safer than another. It is a whole country and women should feel safe in every part. “The issue is about the whole nation or universal,” he said.

Directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, ‘Pink’ casts a looks at an issue that is just a part of many common yet dangerous problems that Indian women face. The courtroom drama also stars Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Angad Bedi, Andrea Tariang, Piyush Mishra and Dhritiman Chatterjee, and is written by Ritesh Shah and produced by Rashmi Sharma and Shoojit Sircar.

Mr. Bachchan not only touched upon the ‘land of rapes’ tag but also strongly voiced his opinion towards another burning issue: sexual discrimination that girls face. He said that society should not discriminate between boys and girls—“if girls are asked about their virginity, then boys should also be questioned”.

The megastar also believes that the problem raised in the film has been a talking point in our society for long; only that the producer of the film has offered their take in the form of a movie.

Mr. Bachchan was also very generous with his praise for the writers of the dialogues he says in the film, saying: “I am really proud to be a part of the film. And every dialogue I have said in the film, if asked to say off camera I will say the same words without even thinking once. I mean them.”

Evidently, his character has some very candid and hard-hitting dialogues in the movie.

Pink – Tapsee Pannu as Minal Arora

‘Pink’ was released in the theatres across the country on 16 September 2016, and has already earned around INR 12cr. After a muted opening, the movie reportedly saw a remarkable growth in the box office collections on the second day. Critics have attributed the film’s tremendous box office comeback to its strong storyline and powerful, fluid performances by not only Bachchan Sahab but also co-actors Pannu, Kulhari, Bedi and Tariang.